A Dozen Hats!

Well, the dozen children's hats are done.  Sigh...they have been so much fun to make.  I actually finished the last hat 2 days ago, so yesterday was spent adding pom-poms & such.  They came out so cute, but I could be a little biased!  I wish I had a dozen kids around so I could get a picture of them wearing the hats, but I'll have to settle for empty hats. :(  Now I just need to get them into the donation center.  Still thinking about some mittens, though! 

The new Patternworks catalog came in the mail yesterday.  The cover shows a Christmas tree decorated with miniature knitted sweaters & wooley sheep, plus a knitted tree skirt.  I want my tree to look like that! :)  So now I have this bug about making mini sweaters.  I don't have a pattern for them, but I think it could be loads of fun to do, plus really cute, too!  I may have to try a few of them.  The holidays are coming & they would be cute package decorations, or maybe even a pin.  The brain is always going on knitty stuff!  On overload, I think! 

We are traveling out of town today, &  we will be gone for the whole week.  We are going to the beach for vacation, my poor hubby needs a break.  I'll have LOTS of time for knitty projects, both in the car & at our destination.  I have a HUGE bag of yarn packed for (hopefully!) whatever project bug gets into my system.  I may do hats while on the road, because they are rather mindless work, I don't have to look at them or even really think about them.  Just knit!  I like that!  It should prove to be a relaxing time, ocean waves, seagulls, & knitting!  Ahhhh, what a life!

Happy Birthday To My Lovely Daughter!

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Girl!  I Love You!  Sheesh, I can't believe how fast that time has gone.  Fifteen years, already!  Sigh...it just means that I'm getting older, too.  Ah, well...it happens. 

As I'm using up the scraps in my yarn box, I see yarns that I had used to make sweaters & things for her over the years.  Funny how I remember dumb stuff like that.  This is the yarn I used to make that cabled sweater, & that yarn is the one I used for the Barney sweater she just had to have, & Oh yeah, there is the yarn I used for matching hat & mittens.  Oh, look, here is the yarn I used to make a cardigan that I finished the day before she was born.  Sigh, guess its a sentimental journey today!  I'm lucky, though.  She is healthy, smart, witty & beautiful.  What more could you ask for?! 

Back to the knitty babble!  I finished the new floppy brim mitered hat.  It is sooooo cute, I can't help myself!  I'll probably add a few pom-poms to it soon.  I'm also working on the brim of the other mitered hat that I finished a few days ago.  My daugther suggested using black, a color I hadn't thought of.  I think it will tie the other colors together.  I'll add the pictures to my album when I'm done! 

This means only one more hat to do for that even dozen.  I'm not sure what colors yet, but I think it might be pink!  I have tons of pinks!  I'm not sure what will be next.  My daughter suggested doing some matching mittens.  The donation center is taking hats, mittens & scarves.  I don't do mittens very often, so I'll have to refer to the pattern a few times.  I might do a pair or two & see if I want to continue or just get the hats to the donation center.  It is already cold here, so I'm sure the little kids could use these right now. 

On another happy note, I had the first response to my journal!  Whoohoo!  Thank you, very much!  Now I know for sure I'm not just talking to cyber-air!

The Scraps Are Gone...Sort Of!

Well, I finished working up the scrap ball from the other day.  Its all knitted it up into I-cord, waiting to be sewn to the rug.  Its a good feeling!  BUT...it was only the really small scraps that I knitted up.  I still have numerous small balls of various colors...I'll work on that...someday!  

Last night I tried my hat idea, but I wasn't too happy with the results.  I think it might be my color choices.  Anyway, I frogged it & just started making a plain hat.  This one has a ribbed brim in a solid royal blue & the top is a variegated in lots of crazy, bright colors.  Great kid colors, I think!  My daughter used to like those kinds of color combinations, before she got into the "wearing black only" thing!  I'm about halfway through this hat, I think it looks sort of boyish, with the blue ribbing. 

I still have to think of something for the mitered hat I completed the other day.  I'm still looking at it & thinking of ideas.  I don't have many for this one.  I may ask my daughter.  She has lots of great ideas that I wouldn't think of myself!  Its great to have another opinion to work with!

The brain is still thinking of the next girly hat that I'm going to do.  I already have the color combination picked out.  I'm going to do it in the mitered style & make a floppy brim like I did before with the orange-colored one. 

That hat is really not orange, it is a rusty red, but it looked orange in every picture I took of it!  I tried different lighting, different backgrounds, nothing worked.  So it looks orange!  Oh well!  Since I don't have a small child around for a model, I used a large soup can to give it some body!  It worked pretty good, but it would look lots better on a little girls head!  Someone will enjoy it, I hope!

Doing Scrap Yarn Cleanup

Well, for all my good intentions of finishing that hat, I didn't!  After making yesterday's journal entry, I thought about that I-cord rug again.  Also, how messy my scrap basket has been getting.  So yesterday, I tied all the ends together & made a large ball of the scrap pieces.  Then I started knitting on it, just to see how much I could get done.  I did a few yards of I-cord, got the ball about a third of the way down, & called it quits for the night. 

It was a pretty successful day, in my opinion.  The scrap basket is very neat again, not overflowing like it was yesterday!  The small pieces are in one big ball, so no loose ends there!  (Ack! Bad pun!)  I also re-wound some of the small balls that had come undone. 

I still have a lot, & I guess I'm just too frugal (read: cheap) to throw them away.  I guess I can't bear to pitch them out, when I think there is SOMETHING I can do with them.  I think I may try to get the family involved.  My daughter does know how to knit, so maybe I should put her to work!  Plus, I did try to teach the hubby how to knit once, he was doing great with it too, but I'm sure he felt it wasn't very manly!  God forbid his brothers see him doing something foo-foo like knitting!  Ha ha!

I'm planning on finishing that mitered hat.  I'm just trying to figure out how I want to finish the brim.  I was thinking ribbing, but now, I'm not so sure.  Maybe I'll start a girly hat & leave the other one in my view so I can think of other ideas for it.  Sometimes I have to let them brew for awhile before I get an inspiration!   Oh, well...off to knit!

A New Day Dawns

After looking at the helix hat I started Sunday, I thought I would try a few more rounds to see if it looked better...and it did!  So I finished it yesterday, & I almost finished a boy's mitered hat.  The hat itself is actually done, but I want to put a ribbing around the brim.  Most likely it will be finished later today.  Then, I'm probably going to do another girly hat. 

After I'm done with a hat, I'll leave it sitting across the room but right in front of me.  This way, I keep looking at it to see what embellishments I should add to make it more fun & festive.  Boys hats are rather limited.  Maybe a pom-pom, but that's about it.  Girls hats are a blast, cause you can add flowers, bows, ribbons, pretty much whatever you want. 

The saddest thing is, even though I've made so many hats (about 5 dozen), scrap yarn afghans (two queen sized), the I-cord rug (still in progress!) & squares (150 or more?) for Warm Up America, I still have tons of yarn left. 

I have most of it stored in boxes in my closet.  Which is nice, cause it is out of the way, but sadly, it is also out of sight & not too easily accessible.  When I'm working on a project like the hats, I usually bring a box of scraps down to the den, where I can get to it easily.  Its ugly, though, & gets in the way.  The hubby is always complaining about them.  I'll put them back for a short while, but then, I'll start dragging them back out. 

I need to be able to have them handy, & in a good light so I can pair them up with other colors.  Sigh...I need some sort of storage unit (attractive would be nice!) in the den so I can put some yarns there.  A working supply readily at hand!  Hmm...something else to wish for...guess I'll just go knit! 

Knitting Frustrations

I started another hat yesterday.  I was going to try my "new" idea, but realized I didn't have enough yarn in the colors I wanted to use.  So I just figured I would do another helix spiral hat.  I think I'm hooked on those!!  :)  But after doing a few inches, I'm not happy with the results.  I think I'm going to frog it & start a different hat.  I'm thinking the mitered hat would work well with the colors I have, & I think I should have enough of the colors I've choosen to do at least one or two sections of the miter wedges.  Plus, I can always add to my color choices if I run out while in progress. 

So much for my good intentions of finishing a hat yesterday.  I hate when that happens.  I get all excited about a new project, but when it doesn't come out as anticipated, it deflates my energy.  Sigh.  I'm planning to at least START it today, & that type of hat seems to go fairly quickly, so I hope to have a good amount done on it later today.  

One of my biggest problems with getting started on a new hat is choosing the colors.  I wanted to make another "boyish" color hat, because I don't have a lot of "boy" colors.  When I make a girly-type hat, my choices are definately easier!  The pitfalls of having a girl-child...only having girl color yarns! 

Bored Here, Think I'll Go Knit!

I'm bored here on the computer today.  I've read all my forums, finished searching for new patterns, read my email.  Guess its time to go knit something!  :)  Yesterday, I finished another helix spiral hat. It is in some really fun colors, white, yellow & orange.  It looks like sunshine!  I'm thinking about adding a knitted flower or maybe a pom to it, to dress it up a bit. 

That makes 7 kids hats.  I'd like to give them an even dozen.  So if I work really hard today, I should be able to finish at least one, maybe even two.  I'd like to make some matching mittens for some of the hats, but I'm not sure right now.  I'm hoping to take the completed items to Michael's in a few days.  If I'm lucky, they'll have yarn on sale while I'm there.  NO!  BAD SPUNK!  NO MORE YARN!  This self discipline thing is really hard! :)

Hat Stuff

My hands were hurting yesterday, so I didn't knit anything except that ruffled brim. You think the temperature outside going from 80 deg.F to 40 deg F had anything to do with it?!  I had to do something, so I worked on the pom-poms & some other finishing touches for these hats. I may add a garter st bow to that chapeau hat, or maybe even a small knitted flower, just to make it more fun!  I'm going to see how the hands are doing today.  I may try my new idea on another hat today. 

I also didn't include pics of the roll brim hats that I've finished.  They are both striped versions, in St st.  Once you've seen one, you've seen 'em all! 

 

Hat Pictures!

Above are pictures of a few of the childrens hats I've finished.  Clockwise from upper left:  Chapeau hat, Mitered Ruffle hat, Spiral hat, Helix Spiral hat. 

The chapeau hat is my own creation. It features a roll brim, slip stich checks & a roll top. It was loads of fun to make, & my teenage daughter thinks its "fun". I hope that's a good sign & she's not just humoring me! The mitered hat is a pattern I found on the net. It is a really interesting pattern because it is worked in sideways "wedges", then the last seam is sewn together. I did mine in Stockinette stitch, but I didn't like the way it curled under. I had finished this a week or so ago, but it was driving me crazy about that curl, so yesterday I added the ruffled brim in garter st & a few pom-poms to make it more fun! I, of course, ran out of the main yarn color, so I used the same cream yarn from the poms to do the bind off row on the brim. I liked the way it looked on the "garter side", so I kept it that way. I think that's my favorite so far! The spiral hat is another one I found off the net. It is a simple rib st pattern that moves over by one stitch to create the spiral rib. I used a variegated yarn in a feastive color combination. I've made socks in this stitch that my daughter just loved! The last hat is the helix pattern that I complained about before. After working it out correctly, it was a fun pattern to do. I can using this one for those smallish balls of yarn that aren't enough for a complete hat. This one used three different colors, a royal blue, a bright blue & a fluorescent green. Another one that the daughter said was "fun". She even said she would wear this one. Which means a lot to me, cause she mostly wears black! 

Some Inane Babble

I'm currently working on a kid's helix spiral hat.  I found the pattern on the web & it seemed intriguing.  I started it just like the directions said, but it wasn't working out right.  I kept thinking about it & realized that it will NEVER work out.  The pattern is way wrong.  But fortunately my hubby helped me solve the dilemma.  I should be finished with it later tonight.  That will be 6 kids hats so far. 

I also had an inspiration with this pattern, & I tried it yesterday...IT WORKS!  Wheee!  I'm going to do a hat with my idea, & if it comes out well, I'll post the pattern!  I'm kind of excited, I don't think I've ever seen a hat like it, so it should be unique!  I am thinking about making it in some bright kid colors.  I don't have too much in the boyish colors, so I'm limited to mainly pinks & girly colors! 

I'm planning on taking some pictures of the hats that I've completed.  Eye candy is always a good thing! 

True Confessions Of A Knitting Junkie

True confessions time! I'm currently on a yarn fast. I'm not buying any more yarn until I use a large quantity of my existing stash. This is one of the reasons I'm making the hats! They are great because they take small quantities of yarn really well! At the same time, I'm using those REALLY small amounts in an I-cord rug project. I can use scraps a few inches long, then I'm sewing it in an oval shape, just like a braided rag rug. I may stop soon & give it to Sparky for his bed!